


The Sacrifice

by AniDragon



Series: Voltron Animorphs AU [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Animorphs AU, Because morphing is Not Pretty, Body Horror, But not the funny kind, M/M, Minor Character Death, No prior knowledge of Animorphs needed, Only by modern I mean vaguely 90s, Pre-Relationship, Slavery, The body-snatching kind, Violence that's canon-typical for Animorphs but probably a bit worst than you'd find in vld, angsty ending, brain slugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-10 23:07:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15959501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AniDragon/pseuds/AniDragon
Summary: While walking home from the mall one day, Shiro and his friends come across a dying alien king who warns them of a secret alien invasion, and gives them a power to help them fight back: The power to morph into any animal they can touch.Just yesterday, the biggest thing on Shiro’s mind was trying to figure out why he keeps finding his eyes wandering over to his best friend, Keith, so often. Now, apparently, he and his friends have to try and save the world, and can’t trust anybody but each other.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, any time I get interested in a new fandom, it's only a matter of time before I try and write an Animorphs AU or crossover. Voltron was not the exception, though you can all thank the Sheith Big Bang for forcing me to actually finish this one! I'll be staggering the uploads, but they should all be up by the end of the day.
> 
> A big thank you to Mari, museaway, and papirini for beta-reading!
> 
> Artwork will be added one I have a link.

           My name is Shiro.

           Just Shiro. I can’t tell you my full name. None of us can ever tell you our full names, or where we live. You see, there are people out there who want me and my friends dead, or worse.

           Sounds pretty dramatic, right? I mean, if you looked at me, you’d probably think I was a normal guy, maybe a bit of a jock (You’d be wrong—I’m really more of a nerd). Hell, I’m an amputee for crying out loud. Who would be enough of a jerk to want _me_ dead?

           And the answer is: The Yeerks. The Yeerks want me dead.

           And the Yeerks are, well… they’re aliens.

           “Wait, hold up Shiro,” you’re probably saying. “Now you’re talking about aliens? Are you some kind of conspiracy nut?”

           If only.

           But maybe I should start at the beginning.

           All of this started that fateful evening at the mall. I was there with my school’s Astronomy Club, which consisted of a grand total of three people. There was me, my classmate Matt, and my best friend Keith. Keith was a couple of grades below us, but tended to get along better with us than with his own classmates. He was a bit introverted, but somehow we’d hit it off almost right away, and we were almost inseparable now.

           We’d also brought along Matt’s little sister Pidge. Well, Katie, technically, but Matt’s childhood nickname for her had stuck, so everyone called her Pidge now. She was a bit of a prodigy, and had apparently been begging Matt to take her to the mall’s new “science palace” exhibit ever since it had been announced.

           The only space-related thing at the exhibit ended up being a VR spaceship simulator, but it was still pretty cool. And we had a good laugh when Keith tried out that ball that makes your hair stand up, and his long hair went all over the place. I also took a particular interest in the display of high-end prosthetic limbs. I have—or, well, _had_ —a prosthetic arm, though I couldn’t come close to being able to afford the fancier prostheses that were coming out.

           We’d just finished up there and were heading to the food court when we ran into Lance and Hunk, two of Keith’s classmates. I’d only ever met them briefly, before, though I knew that Keith didn’t get along with Lance. Hunk, on the other hand, was known as being the nicest guy in school, if a bit prone to sarcasm.

           Keith made an annoyed noise at the sight of them and started moving to hide on the other side of me, but unfortunately, Lance spotted him.

           “Hey, mullet-head!”

           Keith sighed. “Lance. Hunk.”

           “Hey, guys!” Hunk greeted, sidestepping the tension. “We were just about to get some tacos. Want to join us?”

           “I’ll pass,” Matt said. “I’ve got that Sharing meeting, and they’ve got free food there. You coming, Pidge?”

           The Sharing was a new club Matt had joined recently, and he’d been trying to get just about everyone he knew to join with him. It was something like a co-ed, all ages boy scouts group that promoted itself on its diversity. Matt had originally only joined because a girl he liked was part of it, but recently he’d become pretty enthusiastic about the whole thing. It sounded good, but I hadn’t really had a chance to check it out yet.

           Pidge let out a sigh at Matt’s offer. “You _know_ I’m not interested in social clubs. I’d rather eat here and then head home.”

           Matt frowned. “You’re not walking home by yourself, Pidge.”

           “I can walk her back,” I volunteered. “It’s not like you guys live that far from me.”

           For a split second, I thought I saw a flash of anger cross Matt’s face, but the next second, he was smiling again. “Thanks, Shiro. I’ll see you at school?”

           I nodded and waved him off, a bit unnerved at what I thought I saw, but shook it off and joined the others in line for tacos.

           “Thanks for offering to walk me home,” Pidge said. “I’m running out of excuses to avoid going to those Sharing meetings.”

           “What’s so bad about the Sharing?” Hunk asked. “They seem pretty chill.”

           “They seem like a _cult_ ,” Keith muttered.

           “Oh, here we go,” Lance said with a roll of his eyes. “What is it this time? Mothman? Aliens? Mind control?”

           “Mothman is bullshit. But I... Haven’t entirely ruled out mind control or aliens,” Keith admitted.

           “Seriously?” Lance brought his hands up, exasperated. “You could at least _try_ not to be a total loser!”

           “Actually, that wouldn’t surprise me at this point,” Pidge said. “The mind control thing, that is. Matt’s been acting _really_ weird since he joined. Don’t you think so, Shiro?”

           “I don’t know,” I admitted, thinking back to the weird look on Matt’s face. “I mean... Yeah, he’s been a little different, but that happens, right? People change sometimes, especially when they get new friends or have new interests.”

           Pidge shrugged, but didn’t seem convinced.

           “It’s not just Matt, though,” Keith said. “It’s their whole spiel. Accepting everyone is a nice thought, but it doesn’t work in practice.”

           Lance raised an eyebrow. “You don’t trust them because they’re _too_ accepting?”

           Keith sighed in frustration. “No, it’s... Listen. No one accepts _everyone_ . You can’t accept, say, people of all races, _and_ racist people. You can’t accept gay people _and_ homophobes. You have to exclude _someone_ , but the Sharing claims that they don’t. They’re all apparently just a big happy family. If they’re not excluding anyone, they must be doing _something_ to get the support of people who would want them to.”

           “That’s... not a bad point,” I admitted.

           Lance looked at me incredulously.

           “I’ve seen groups that honestly hate each other both advertise the Sharing. I’m not saying it’s necessarily mind control.” I smiled apologetically at Keith. “But _something_ shifty might be going on. Maybe blackmail, or exploitation?”

           Pidge was nodding emphatically, and even Hunk seemed thoughtful.

           “Great,” Lance shook his head. “Keith’s crazy is contagious.”

           He got to the front of the line, then, and turned around to order his tacos.

           After we ate, we all headed out of the mall to begin walking home. We were all in the same direction save for Keith and Lance, but Keith and I had already made plans for him to stay over at my place for the weekend, and it seemed like Lance had made similar plans with Hunk.

           There was an old abandoned construction site that Keith and I usually cut through when heading home. It wasn’t exactly the safest, as it was a hotbed for drug deals and muggings, so I’d been planning on avoiding it, considering Pidge’s presence and the fact that it was starting to get dark. But to my surprise, she made a beeline for the broken bit of fencing that served as an entrance.

           "Pidge!" I exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

           "What? It's way quicker to cut through here."

           "It's dangerous."

           She rolled her eyes. "Oh please, as if anyone is going to mess with us with _you_ there."

           "She's got a point, Mr. Muscles," Lance said with a wink, patting my shoulder and following Pidge into the construction site.

           Okay, so _maybe_ I was a bit buff, which was why I never worried when it was just me and Keith. And maybe with a big enough group, we'd intimidate away anyone who would cause trouble.

           Either way, it looked like at least Pidge and Lance were determined to take the shortcut whether I agreed or not. With a sigh, I followed them in, Keith and Hunk close behind me.

           We stayed quiet as we walked, not wanting to call too much attention to ourselves. I kept an eye out on our surroundings, though eventually found my gaze wandering over to Keith.

           I… had a habit of looking at Keith. I hadn't allowed myself to think too hard about _why_ , yet.

           Keith, for his part, was looking at the darkening sky.

           It wasn't that unusual; He liked to stargaze, and in fact it was something we often ended up doing whenever we hung out. But this time there was a strange look on his face, and, curious, I turned my eyes up to follow his gaze.

           There was a fast-moving light in the sky—faster than any plane or satellite, and more erratic, too. My eyes widened, and I looked back at Keith. Our eyes met, and I could tell he was thinking the same thing I was. Neither of us would say it out loud, though. Lance would have definitely laughed at us.

           Pidge, on the other hand, had no such worries.

           "It's a UFO!" she cried out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm still not satisfied with this chapter for a number of reasons, the primary of which being that it doesn't divert enough from the Animorphs scene it's based on... But I ran low on time to fix it, so it is what it is. *shrugs*
> 
> Additional violence warning on this chapter, scroll to the bottom for spoilers.

           "It's a UFO!" Pidge cried out.

           Lance _did_ laugh, and rolled his eyes. "A UFO? Please."

           Then he looked up.

           The light was closer, now, and I could start seeing the shape of craft that it was attached to.

           It _definitely_ didn't look like any plane or helicopter from Earth, that was for sure. If anything, it had an almost cat-like shape.

           "Should... Should we run?" Hunk asked, but then shook his head. "Wait, no, if we make sudden movements, it might, I don't know, blast us with its phasers or something."

           "Phasers are only on _Star Trek_ ," Lance responded. As if he was some sort of expert on alien spaceships.

           "One of us could run home and grab a camera, maybe," I suggested. "Can you imagine how much money we'd make for a real UFO video?"

           "Yeah," Keith agreed, but none of us made any move to leave.

           "It's heading this way!" Pidge almost whispered, her voice filled with awe.

           "Is it?" Hunk asked. "It's hard to tell."

           "No, it's definitely heading this way," she replied, voice sure.

           I had to agree. The cat-ship was getting bigger, and I could feel static in the air, making the hairs on my arm stand up. I stole a glance over at Keith and almost laughed at the sight of his hair sticking up the way it had at the science palace earlier.

           The cat-ship hovered almost right above us, now. It was large, about the size of a small house, and red like fire. It settled down slowly in front of us, and we all held our collective breaths.

           The cat's jaw opened up, creating a ramp leading into the ship.

           At first, I would have sworn that the man who stepped out was a normal human. He was shaped like a human, anyway, with two arms, two legs, and a head. He was wearing a white flight suit with red and black accents, and only the faceplate of his helmet was open, showing brown skin, a white beard, and kind blue eyes. There were some strange markings on his face, a teal-coloured triangle at the outer corner of each eye, but otherwise, he didn't seem so unusual.

           He stumbled as he got near the bottom of the ramp, and that was when I noticed he was injured. There was a large, bloody gash in his side, and he brought a hand there to press down on the wound with a wince.

           Lance was the first to react, rushing to the man's side and helping him sit down.

           "Hey, wow there. Take it easy. Oh man, that looks bad. Hold on, I can wrap it up.”

           He started taking off his jacket, but the injured man held up a hand to stop him.

           "No," he said, his voice weak. "Do not waste your energy; the wound is mortal. I will die."

           His words hit me hard, probably harder than they should have, considering he was a stranger. From what I could see of the others' expressions, they seemed to feel the same.

           The man lifted a hand to his helmet, and Lance helped him remove it. That was when I caught sight of his long, pointed ears.

           _Not so human after all_ , I thought.

           "Who are you?" I asked, kneeling down next to him.

           "My name is King Alfor," he answered. "I am... From a different world. Altea. It is… was… a planet far from your solar system."

           "I... It's not that I don't believe you," Pidge said, frowning, "But if you're from another planet, how are you speaking our language?"

           Alfor didn't seem to take offense to the question. In fact, he smiled and nodded towards his ship. "The lion emits a psychic field that allows languages to be translated. I'm quite proud of that invention."

           He shuddered, suddenly, and grit his teeth against the pain. I felt tears prickle against my eyes.

           "Isn't there anything we can do for you?" Hunk asked sadly. He was already crying.

           "Not for me," Alfor answered. "But I can help you. The creatures who destroyed my planet are coming for yours. Some are already here. They are called Yeerks. They are... parasites. Without a host, they're almost powerless, but they can crawl into a host's brain and take over their bodies. They can read the host's memories and pass as them, even to their friends. In this form, they are known as Controllers."

           "Are you saying they take over people?" Pidge asked, horrified.

           "This is serious stuff," Hunk said, sniffling and wiping his face. "Shouldn't you be telling... I don't know, the government or something? We're just teenagers."

           "We'd hoped to stop them," Alfor continued. "My people, Alteans, we allied ourselves with another people called Andalites, so we could fight them together. But the Yeerks had allies, as well. The Galra. The Galran Emperor, Zarkon, sold his people's freedom to the Yeerks, and led them to destroy Altea. I managed to send a message to the Andalites before our communications were cut off, but they are still several light-years from this planet.

           "I can give you something to fight the Yeerks and Galra until they arrive," he continued. "In my ship, there's a device. A small blue box. Could one of you fetch it?"

           I nodded shakily and stood up.

           "Just take the ramp up into the pilot's chamber," he instructed. "The box will be right there."

           I took a quick glance at the others. I might have volunteered, but I was still nervous about walking into an alien spaceship by myself.

           Keith caught my eye. "Go ahead," he said. "You're not scared."

           Actually, I was plenty scared. But the way Keith looked at me, with that determination in his gaze, gave me the boost of bravery I needed.

           I hurried onto the ship, not sure how much time Alfor had. At least it seemed he was right about the ease of finding the pilot's chamber and the box. It was sitting on what looked like a dashboard and was a deep blue, contrasting the red of the ship.

           As I took the box, I caught sight of something else: A small hologram of Alfor and a young girl with his same brown skin, pointed ears, and white hair. She even shared the markings on his face, though hers were pink instead of teal.

           _His daughter_ , I realized. It must have been; she looked so much like him.

           I turned away from the hologram, heart in my throat. Was she gone, along with Altea? Or was she alive somewhere, wondering where her father was?

           I left the ship and rejoined the others, blue box in hand.

           Alfor thanked me when I handed him the box.

           "That hologram, in your ship," I brought up awkwardly. "Is that your daughter?"

           He smiled softly and nodded. "Allura. My only comfort is knowing she is safely hidden."

           He shuddered again and groaned. "There is something I can do for you, to help you fight the Yeerks. If you wish, I can give you a power that I helped the Andalites to develop. It's a piece of technology that the Yeerks and Galra don't have access to. A technology that will enable you to pass anywhere unnoticed: The power to morph. The Andalites will likely be very cross with me for sharing this power, but your need is great."

           "Morph?" Pidge asked. "Morph how?"

           "To change your bodies. To become any other species. Any animal."

           "Become animals?" Pidge asked skeptically.

           "When you touch a creature, you acquire its DNA pattern, and thus the ability to become that creature. It requires concentration and determination, but, if you are strong, you can do it. While it is an incredibly powerful gift, there are certain vulnerabilities. Risks even, with this capability. But I don’t have time to teach you. You will have to pick up the limits and freedoms that come with it on your own. But first, do you wish to receive this power?"

           "He's kidding, right?" Hunk asked me.

           "No," Lance said softly. "He's not kidding."

           "This is crazy," Hunk whispered shakily. "Aliens and spaceships and parasites taking over people's brains and us turning into animals? This is beyond weird."

           "Yeah, it is, but it's happening," Keith said. "So we have to deal with it."

           "He's dying," Lance reminded us.

           "I'll do it," Keith said, kneeling down next to Alfor. That didn't surprise me, though it did concern me a bit. Keith had always been impulsive.

           "This is a big decision," I pointed out. "We should decide together."

           "What's that?" Pidge asked suddenly, looking up. Another light was moving among the stars, twin pinpricks of red.

           "Yeerks," Alfor hissed. "There's no more time. You _must_ decide!"

           "I..." Hunk hesitated, then shook his head. "This is something we should take our time deciding, you know? But we don't have that choice. So I'm in."

           "Me too," Pidge said.

           "I'm in," Lance said, not taking his eyes off of Alfor.

           "Shiro?" Keith asked me gently. "What do you think?"

           I looked around at the others. If it had just been myself, I wouldn't have hesitated. But could I say yes knowing it would drag the others into it, too? I didn't know Hunk and Lance very well, but Keith was my best friend, and Pidge was practically still a _kid_ , for God's sake.

           I glanced up at the moving light in the sky. It was getting closer, and another light had joined it. The Yeerks were approaching.

           I looked back at everyone and nodded. "We have no choice."

           Alfor held up the cube. "Then each of you, press a hand against the side of the cube."

           We did as he said. I placed my good hand on the cube along with the others, then felt a tingling sensation shoot up my arm.

           "Now go," Alfor said. "Just remember: If you stay in morph for too long, you'll remain trapped in that morph. The limit is two vargas."

           Keith looked alarmed. "What's a varga?"

           "It's…" Alfor frowned, then glanced up at the lion. "One of your... hours? A bit more."

           "Two hours," I confirmed.

           I glanced up at the sky, then put a hand on Keith's shoulder to guide him into following me to hide behind a half-built wall nearby. Pidge and Hunk hurried behind us, but there was someone missing.

           I glanced back at Alfor. Lance was still kneeling at his side.

           "Lance, move!" I yelled.

           Alfor reached out a hand to his temple, and Lance jerked back as if he'd been shocked. But then he was up and running with the rest of us.

           He slid in behind the wall just as a spotlight from one of the new ships lit up the area around Alfor.

           Mouth dry, I peeked over the edge of the wall as the new ships landed. There were two smaller ships, shaped almost like legless cockroaches, with sharp, serrated spears sticking out the front. They landed on either side of the lion.

           «Yeerk fighter ships,» Alfor's voice suddenly rang out in my head. «We call them Bug Fighters.»

           I glanced at the others. They all looked just as surprised as I was.

           "He's using the lion, I think," Pidge whispered. "Psychic field, remember?"

           I nodded. It made about as much sense as anything else that was happening.

           There was a bigger ship in the sky as well. Bigger even than the lion. It was pure black, almost invisible against the night sky, save for the lights and the way it blocked out the stars, and was shaped like an ancient battle axe. The sight of the ship filled me with dread in a way I'd never experienced before, and I felt my breath leave my lungs as it started to descend.

           «The Blade Ship,» Alfor advised us. «A flagship for high-ranking Yeerk and Galra operatives. This one likely belongs to Visser Three, the only Yeerk with an Andalite host, and with the same morphing power you now have. He's the one who's in charge of Earth's invasion.»

           The ship descended, looking like it might land directly on top of a large earthmover that was parked nearby. But instead, the earthmover sizzled and completely disintegrated, and the ship touched down in its place as if it had never been there.

           The door of the Blade Ship opened, and I almost screamed at the creatures that stepped out. Hunk _did_ scream, and Lance clamped a hand over his mouth to quiet him.

           The creatures looked like something out of a nightmare. They were tall and lizard-like, standing on their hind legs, with a long neck like a snake and a face like a bird of prey. Their feet were a bit like bird talons, too, powerful and clawed.

           And then there were the blades. Sticking out of their knees, elbows, and wrists, at the end of their tails, and even on their foreheads were sharp, curved, horn-like blades.

           «Hork-Bajir Controllers,» Alfor said, «The Hork-Bajir used to be good people, before the Yeerks made them all slaves.»

           "Yeah, right," Keith muttered. "They're walking weapons."

           It _was_ hard to believe. Much as I hated to judge from appearance, it was hard to think of how they could be anything but dangerous killing machines.

           The next creatures to leave the Blade Ship weren't much easier on the eyes. They looked and moved like centipedes, only they were about twice as long as a grown man, and as big around as a tree trunk. The front third of their bodies was held upright, and their rows of legs turned into spindly arms that ended in lobster-like claws. Their faces, if you could call them that, had four red eyes on stalks that surrounded a mouth containing rows and rows of sharp teeth.

           «Taxxons,» Alfor told us. «Vile creatures. Many aren't even Controllers; They serve the Yeerks willingly, and in return the Yeerks provide for their desperate, ever present hunger for fresh meat.»

           The Taxxons were circling Alfor, possibly drawn to him by the smell of his blood. They didn't attack, but it seemed to be a near thing. The thought of it made me feel sick to my stomach.

           The last aliens to leave the ship were more humanoid in shape, and heavily armored. From the few without helmets, though, it was clear that their resemblance to humans was only in their shape. Their skin and hair -- or, well, fur, really -- had a purple hue to it, and their ears were large and multi-lobed, like a moth’s wings. Their eyes were yellow, and many of them didn’t seem to have any pupils or irises.

           «The Galra,» Alfor said. So, these were the people who’d destroyed Alfor's planet. «And… Oh no.  Zarkon.»

           It was clear who Alfor meant. The Galra were already much larger than any human, but the one who'd just stepped out of the Blade ship was even taller and broader than the rest of them. His armor was different, too— blood red and ceremonial looking. Fit for an emperor. And then there were his eyes... Unlike the rest of the Galra, his eyes were white. And maybe it was just a trick of the light, but I could have sworn they were glowing.

           "King Alfor," his voice boomed menacingly. "How nice of you to deliver the Red Lion directly to me. I would have hated to need to destroy it just to kill you."

           "You'll never find the others," Alfor spat out. "Even I don't know where they are, so they're out of your reach, even with the help of your Yeerk masters."

           Zarkon scoffed. "The Yeerks don't command me. In fact, they've kindly allowed my top generals and I to retain our freedom and have given me command over some of their troops."

           "In exchange for the freedom of the rest of the Galran people. Your _own people_ , Zarkon! I knew you’d gone mad, but what could possibly be worth that?"

           "I don't need to explain myself to you!" he shouted angrily, then turned his back to him. "Leave him to the Taxxons."

           Alfor paled at the words. But that was all I was able to see before the Taxxons swarmed on him, not wasting time now that they had permission to feast.

           I turned away from the scene, not able to watch, but nothing could block the sound of his screams. I caught Keith's eyes, and he looked just as upset as I was, just as terrified, but behind it I could also see anger. He eyed a nearby piece of loose piping, and I realized what he was planning a split second before he acted.

           I reacted quickly, reaching over to grab his arm just as he reached down to grab the pipe. I pulled him towards me and held him against my chest as he struggled.

           “Let me at them!” He argued. “We can't let them get away with this!”

           “There's nothing we can do!” I argued back.

           “Shiro's right,” Lance hissed. “He's dying for _us_. Don't be an asshole and throw that away!”

           Keith gave another token struggle before the fight left him and he deflated into my arms, muffling a sob into my shoulder.

           Behind me, Alfor's screams had stopped. It was over.

           Zarkon started barking out orders, things about securing the Red Lion and clearing out any evidence. I clung tightly to Keith, trying to control my breathing. In the dead silence since the screams had stopped, it felt like any little noise we made could give us away.

           Unfortunately, that was around the time Hunk threw up.

           It was an understandable reaction, considering what we’d just witnessed. It also seemed to have been loud enough to be noticed.

           “What was that?” Zarkon demanded. “I thought I’d ordered the perimeter to be searched! We can’t have any witnesses. Find them and eliminate them!”

           “Run!” I exclaimed.

           We all scattered in different directions. I quickly lost track of the others, and headed towards one of the ruined buildings.

           I could hear that someone was hot on my heels, but I didn't dare look behind me to check. I thought I heard shouting from outside the building in what was distinctly human voices, and after a moment I realized it was Keith, shouting taunts.

 _I hope you know what you're doing, Keith,_ I thought to myself.

           Somehow, I managed to lose my pursuer. Had Keith's shouting drawn them away? Was Keith safe? I had no way of knowing without going back, but doing that blindly, without a plan, was a death sentence. I could only pray that the others had made it out.

           I wasn't sure how I made it home, pumped up as I was with fear and adrenaline. All I knew was that I made it, and that Keith wasn't there.

           I tried to wrack my brain for some sort of plan to go back and help. If nothing else, I should call the others’ houses and check to see if they’d made it home. But as soon as I sat on my bed I was hit with a wave of exhaustion as the adrenaline wore off, and passed out before my head even hit the pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Violence warning: Okay, I'm not gonna sugar coat this. I don't go into detail, but Alfor just straight up gets eaten alive by giant alien centipedes.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With every new power comes shenanigans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for bearing with me for that last chapter. I promise the quality improves from here on out.
> 
> Art in this chapter provided by the amazing tobiyoo http://tobiyooo.tumblr.com/post/177994257935/the-sacrifice-by-anidragon-while-walking-home

           When I woke up the next morning, part of me believed that everything that had happened the previous evening had been some crazy dream. I groaned at the uncomfortable pain on my side where I’d slept on the hard plastic of my prosthetic, cursing myself for having been too tired the previous night to remember to remove it before going to sleep.

           I sat up and removed it now, rubbing the sore stump and vaguely noticing that I was still wearing the same clothes I’d been wearing yesterday.

           Before I had too much time to wonder about that, the door of my bedroom opened suddenly, and Keith barrelled in. His eyes were wild, and he smiled wide upon seeing me. “Shiro!”

           I blinked and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Keith was acting strange. He’d always been reserved and quiet, and while I’ve been lucky enough to be one of the few people he allowed himself to smile around, it was still a rare sight.

           “Keith?”

           He checked the hallway behind him quickly before closing the door and hurrying to sit at the corner of my bed. “I did it.”

           I searched his face, my sleep addled brain not following. “Did what?”

           He glanced at my closed bedroom door again and I hid a yawn behind my hand. Keith leaned forward then and whispered. “Morphing.”

           My jaw snapped shut. I stared hard at him. “Huh?”

           “Just like Alfor said,” he specified. He stood up and started pacing. “When I ended up home last night, I couldn’t get to sleep, and Red was just sitting there judging me, like he does.” Red was Keith’s foster family’s cat: a big, fluffy, cranky thing that hated pretty much everyone, but somehow Keith had managed to get on his good side. That certainly didn’t mean the cat was _friendly_ to him, but it tolerated his presence.

           “And I didn’t really know how to go about it,” Keith continued, “But I _needed_ to know, you know? So I reached over to pet him and started just focusing hard on him. On becoming him. And then the next thing I knew I was growing fur! Oh man, you should have seen Red, he was so freaked out. I had to move him out of my room, and well, he liked that even less and clawed me up pretty good.”

           I shook my head. “I… Keith… Are you sure you didn’t just dream this?”

           He let out a dry laugh. “You know, when I woke up this morning, I was almost convinced that I did? But then I tried it again, and it’s real Shiro. All of it. Not just the morphing, but the Yeerks and Galra and everything. And Alfor.”

           I’d opened my mouth to protest, not wanting to believe any of it, but I hesitated at the mention of Alfor. I might have been willing to pretend away the horrors of the previous night, but Alfor… He’d given his life for us. I couldn’t just pretend I’d dreamt him.

           And if he was real, then so was everything else.

           Keith moved a bit closer to me and reached over to place a hand over mine, giving it a comforting squeeze. “Hey, I get it. I’m freaked out, too. But we can’t just ignore this.”

           I squeezed his hand back but didn’t reply. I couldn’t. What could I even say?

           “Here, watch this,” he said, standing up and letting go of my hand.

           He stood still for a moment, and I frowned. “What am I supposed to be watching?”

           He grinned, showing his teeth, and something seemed off about them. Like they were sharper or something. His eyes seemed odd, too. They were usually a beautiful deep blue, almost purple, but right then they seemed... yellow? And his hair seemed somehow shaggier than normal, and was it turning grey?

           And that’s when I noticed that he was shrinking.

           I just barely held back a shout, clamping my hand over my mouth just in time. Keith’s clothing was sagging around him as he got smaller, but before he disappeared into the folds, I could see his face get covered in grey and black fur.

           While I couldn’t see Keith himself anymore, his clothing kept falling as he shrunk. It didn’t take too long, a minute or two, maybe, before the cat-sized lump started struggling to get out.

           «Would you help me out, here?»

           I jumped at the sound of Keith’s voice in my head. “Keith? Was that you?”

           The lump stopped struggling for a moment. «You can hear me?»

           I nodded, then realized he couldn’t see me. “Yeah. In my head, the way Alfor talked to us when we were hiding.”

           «Huh. Must be linked to the morphing tech. But um. I was serious about needing help, here. I’m stuck.»

           I got out of bed and knelt by the pile of clothing, lifting the shirt to release a large and fluffy grey and black cat.

           The cat— Keith— shook his head hard, then rubbed his flank against my knee. «Thanks, Shiro.»

           I stared hard at him. It was getting really, really difficult to stay in denial. “You’re a cat.”

           He laughed. «Yeah, I am. Pretty bad-ass, huh?»

           I grinned, reaching over to scratch him behind the ear. “It is pretty cool.”

           «Oooohhh, keep doing that,» Keith said, leaning into my hand. «God, that feels good.»

           He started purring, and I kept at it for a few minutes. Keith rolled over onto his side, exposing his belly. When I reached over to pet him there, I suddenly found sharp claws and cat teeth digging into my hand.

           I pulled away with a yelp. “Keith!”

           He blinked, looking confused for a second, before sitting up quickly. «Shit! Sorry, Shiro, I just reacted! Are you okay?»

           I looked at my hand, which sported a couple of angry red scratches, but otherwise didn’t seem too bad. “I’ve had worst. But what the hell, Keith?”

           «I don’t know! I didn’t even consciously do it. It’s like the cat took over, or something.» He nudged his head against my knee. «Sorry.»

           I shook my hand a bit to soothe the sting, “It’s okay. So you… What, have both your own mind and the cat’s at the same time?”

           «Not completely. It’s not like there’s another person in my head, not the way Alfor described the Yeerks or anything. I guess it’s more like instincts?»

           I thought about that for a moment. “I guess that makes sense. If you’re going to turn into something with a body that works completely differently from yours, it helps to have something that helps you know how to use it.”

           «I think I’m going to morph out, either way,» he said with a nervous laugh. «Red’s an aggressive bastard, and I don’t want to hurt you again.»

           He started growing almost immediately. I watched in fascination, not having been able to get a good look the first time because his clothing had been in the way. There was a moment, once he was almost human again only still covered in fur and with cat ears, where I had a sudden thought that he looked almost like one of the Galra that we saw last night… But then his ears became rounded human ears, and his fur got sucked into pink human skin, and he was fully human again.

           And naked.

           Keith was naked and in front of me and I was just _staring_ at him like a dumbass.

           I blushed hard and turned away quickly. “Um.”

           “Right.” He sounded just as embarrassed as I was. “I, ah, haven’t figured out how to morph clothing, yet. Or if it’s even possible.”

           I laughed nervously. “If it isn’t, this is going to be a very embarrassing power to have.”

           I heard the shuffling of clothing as Keith got dressed, and tried very, very hard to stop thinking about him naked.

           I mostly failed.

_Get it together, Shiro,_ I berated myself. _Keith is your best friend. Best friends don't think about each other being naked._

           “You can turn around now, I'm decent,” his voice broke me out of my thoughts.

           I turned around, and sure enough, Keith was dressed again. That wild look was also back in his eyes, and I couldn't help but shiver when that gaze landed on me.

           “Well?” he prompted, tilting his head up challengingly.

           “W... Well what?” I asked.

           “It's your turn, now.”

           “My turn?” My turn for what? Getting naked?

           “To try morphing,” he specified.

           Oh. Right. That made a lot more sense.

           “I guess I'll go get Sven,” I said.

           Sven was my dog.

           It wasn't very difficult to track him down. It was just about time to take him out, so as soon as I opened my bedroom door, he barreled in, tail wagging, and gave both me and Keith affectionate kisses.

           I gave him some scratches behind the ear, then glanced over at Keith. "So how does it work?"

           "You have to acquire him first," Keith explained. "So just touch him and focus on him, basically."

           Feeling like the most awkward dork, I turned back to Sven and tried to do what Keith suggested. I focused on his soft black and white fur, and on his goofy dog grin. As I continued to pet him, his eyes drooped, and he laid down by my feet.

           "Is that normal?" I asked. Sven was usually much more hyper than that.

           "I think so," Keith said, "It happened with Red, too, anyway."

           "Right. Now what?"

           "It might be best to put him outside. Red freaked out when I morphed in front of him."

           "Makes sense. Come on, boy."

           I stopped petting him, and he glanced up at me with tired eyes.

           "Out?" I said, and he barked, getting up immediately and racing out into the hall. I laughed and followed him.

           Once he was safely on his leash in the back yard, I returned to my room and closed the door again.

           "Okay. Time to try this. You said with Red you just kept thinking about him?"

           "Pretty much." Keith shrugged. "Picture him in your mind and focus on becoming him."

           I nodded and closed my eyes. I pictured Sven in my mind, but didn't feel like anything was changing.

           "I don't think it's working," I told Keith.

           "You sure about that?" He sounded amused.

           I cracked an eye open to look at him. He was grinning.

           "What?"

           He glanced down, and I followed his gaze to my hand.

           My hand that was now covered in white fur.

           I looked back at Keith, dumbfounded, then hurried to the mirror above my dresser. There was fur on my face, too, and my ears had moved up on my head to become floppy dog ears.

           "Holy shit," I whispered.

           "Keep going!" Keith urged.

           I did what he said, concentrating on Sven once again. I watched in the mirror as my face elongated into a dog snout. I started shrinking, though not as much as Keith had when he'd morphed the cat. I heard some alarming cracking noises as my bones shifted; some lengthening, some shrinking. It felt weird, as if it _should_ hurt, but somehow didn't.

           I fell over as my legs finished the transition to dog legs. I caught myself on my left arm, which was still mostly human despite the fur. As I watched, though, it changed into a dog paw, and another front leg and paw grew from the stump of my right arm.

           The final change was the tail, growing out of my lower back. I gave it an experimental wag, and had a brief moment to note how it felt like all the aches and stiffness of my human body that I hadn’t even realized I had just melted away, before I felt the stirrings of the dog's mind.

           So many smells! I barked excitedly, sniffing around the room. My scent was all over it, so I knew I belonged here. There were two distinct human smells in the room, too, though only one human was present. He smelled a bit like a cat, which I didn't like, but then he started petting me and helping me get free of the encumbering clothes that were around me, so I immediately forgave him.

           He was talking to me, but I wasn't really paying attention. Instead, I focused on another noise. There was another dog! I could hear him barking outside!

           I ran to the open window and put my front paws up on the windowsill. I barked back at the dog. This was _my_ territory.

           "Shiro, calm down," the human said, pulling me away from the window before closing it. "That's just Sven. You just put him outside, remember?"

           Most of the words didn't make sense, but that first word, _Shiro_... That was familiar somehow.

           I whined, then barked again in confusion.

           "Shiro, listen to me. The dog brain is taking over. You're not actually a dog. You're Shiro, a human being, and you're in a morph right now."

           Morph?

           "Remember being human? Remember school, and astronomy club?"

           I focused on the words. 'School' brought up images of a large room filled with desks. And Astronomy Club... I had friends there... Matt and Keith...

           «Keith?» I asked.

           "That's me," he said, smiling.

           The human part of me struggled to the surface, pushing the dog brain away. Yes, I recognized him now. That was Keith, my best friend. And I was Shiro.

           «Holy shit. I feel like I just drank ten cups of coffee.»

           Keith chuckled. “It’s pretty cool, though, isn’t it?”

           «Definitely,» I said. «Dog senses are pretty intense. You wouldn’t believe what I can pick up just from smells.»

           “Oh yeah?” he challenged.

           «You had oatmeal for breakfast, Red is neutered and eats dry food, and...» I gave the air another sniff. «Oh my God, you use 3-in-1 body wash, don’t you?»

           He was silent for moment.

           «You do! For shame, Keith!»

           “It’s cheap and it works, alright? Fuck off!”

           «You know, I had long hair myself at one point, and you should really look into a proper conditioner…»

           “Urgh, you sound like Lance.”

           The mention of Lance made me pause. Keith seemed to notice the hesitation, and he frowned. “I wonder if the others made it home okay…”

           I nodded, which must have looked strange with the dog’s body. «We should call them and make sure they’re all right.»

           “Why don’t you go ahead and demorph then, and--” Keith started, but was cut off by a knock on my bedroom door.

           He looked at me, panicked.

           «My grandfather,» I told him. «Just… Act natural.»

           “Umm… Come in,” Keith called out.

           The door opened, and my grandfather poked his head in. “Hello, Keith, I thought I heard your voice, but…” He looked around in confusion. “Where did my grandson disappear to?”

           “Shiro?” Keith asked. “He, um… He ran to the store to get some snacks.”

           My grandfather nodded, but looked at me, “Strange that he didn’t take Sven with him. It’s almost time for his walk.”

           Keith looked panicked. “Uhhhh, I offered to take Sven out earlier, right around when Shiro left. You didn’t hear the door?”

           It was, to be honest, a _really_ bad lie. There would have been no reason that Keith and Sven wouldn’t have gone with me if I’d actually gone to the store. And my grandfather wasn’t an idiot. Still, I imagine even _he_ couldn’t have guessed what was actually going on.

           He shook his head, apparently deciding it wasn’t worth arguing with teenagers. “Well, when he comes back, remind him that he needs to take out the garbage before noon, would you?”

           “Sure,” Keith said. “No problem.”

           As soon as my grandfather left, Keith let out a sigh of relief. “Wow. We have _got_ to get better at lying.”

           «We?» I teased.

           “I didn’t hear you suggest anything better. Now demorph already.”

           That was probably a good idea. Who knew when my grandfather would be back.

           I focused back on my human body. As the changes started happening, Keith turned away to give me privacy. I tried not to focus too hard on why that disappointed me. Morphing might have been fascinating, but it wasn’t very pretty, so I couldn’t blame Keith for not watching.

           My bones made that weird cracking noise as they shifted back into human bones, and the dog tail got sucked back into my body. I felt the dog snout flatten back into a human nose, and as I watched, the fur on my front paws got sucked back in, and the paws changed back into human hands. Something seemed odd about that, but I shook it off, focused on finishing the morph.

           Finally, I felt my ears shift downwards and become small, round human ears. I stood up straight, feeling stiff and clumsy, and inspected my body in the mirror. Yes, a human head, a human torso, human arms and hands…

           That’s when it clicked. Hands. Plural.

           I inhaled sharply at the realization, looking down at my right hand.

           It must have been close to three years ago that I’d had the car accident where I’d lost most of my right arm, along with my parents and brother. It had been a dark time of my life, but my grandfather had been there to take me in and help me through it. And I’d had Sven, too. He wasn’t originally meant to be a service dog— he’d been a pet that my brother and I had been gifted a couple of years before the accident, when we still lived out in the country— but he’d been vital in my emotional healing.

           And now, just like that, my arm was back.

           “Shiro?” Keith asked, still turned away. “Are you decent, yet?”

           “Um, just a sec,” I stammered out. I grabbed my boxers and jeans off the floor and hurried to put them on, but left my shirt off for now. I needed to see if anything else had changed on my body.

           “You can turn around now,” I said, but didn’t take my eyes off my restored hand.

           “Is everything alright—” he started asking, but then seemed to realize what had happened. “Holy shit.”

           Keith’s hands came into my field of view as he took a gentle hold of my right hand. I glanced up at him, still dumbfounded. “How?”

           He shook his head. “I have no idea… Wait…” He glanced at his own hands. “Remember how I said that Red scratched me up last night? Those cuts are gone, too. I think… I think morphing heals injuries.”

           “Even old ones?” I asked, though the answer was pretty obvious.

           “I guess so. I mean, it’s based on DNA, right? And your DNA isn’t injured...” he said with a shrug. He looked up at my face and ran a finger over the bridge of my nose. The accident had left a bad scar there. “Scars still seem to stick around, though. And your bangs are still white. And our haircuts are still the same, so I guess some things will stay as they are?”

           “How will I explain this, though?” I looked back down at my arm. There was heavy scarring around the area where the amputation used to be, but the arm itself was healthy. There was definitely no mistaking it for a prosthetic -- not even a high end one like those we'd seen at the mall yesterday. “I can’t just walk up to people and say ‘Oh, by the way, my arm grew back!’ People are going to ask questions, and if those people happen to be Controllers…”

           “Yeah. Bad news,” Keith agreed. “Can you just… I don’t know, hide it for now? Wear long sleeves?”

           It would have to do for now, but it was a temporary solution. There were going to be days it would be too hot to wear long sleeves. And what about when I had appointments with my physiotherapist?

           I was suddenly really mad at the Yeerks. Here was this technology that could really help people, but we couldn’t tell anyone about it because of them.

           I went to my closet to pick out a long-sleeved shirt and, after a pause, also grabbed a black glove to wear over my hand. It didn’t look _too_ unusual when I looked in the mirror. I’d done similar things when I had first gotten the prosthetic and was self-conscious about it. It had been months since the last time I’d felt the need to hide it, but at least it made it less obvious that my hand was suddenly flesh again.

           I held my arm at the angle my prosthetic usually sat in, and turned to Keith, raising an eyebrow in question.

           He nodded. “It’ll work for now. When we go see the others, they might have other suggestions.”

           “Have you got Lance and Hunk’s numbers? We should call them and make sure they made it home okay.”

           “I have Hunk’s,” Keith answered. “He was my lab partner in Chemistry last semester. And he should have Lance’s.”

           “Okay. Give them a call, and then I’ll check on Pidge.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which plans are formed.

           A handful of phone calls later revealed that both Hunk and Pidge were at Lance’s, who lived on a farm just outside the city, though luckily still on a bus route.

           When we got there, we spotted Lance and Pidge over by the fence of a horse pasture. Lance looked away from the horses to greet us.

           “Hey, guys.” He nodded over to the horses. “Hunk is just having a joy ride, but he should be finishing up soon.”

           I could see one of the horses galloping in the distance. As it approached, though, I noticed it didn’t have a rider.

           “Hunk is _really_ good at this!” Pidge said with a grin.

           That’s when I noticed that the horse was changing.

           By the time the horse had made it to the fence, its head had been replaced with a human upper body— specifically Hunk’s. He laughed when he saw us.

           “Check it out, I’m a centaur!” he exclaimed.

           “Wait, you were able to control how the morph went?” I asked, impressed. “When Keith and I tried it, it just sort of happened randomly.”

           “We also couldn’t morph clothing,” Keith mentioned. “How did you manage that?”

           Hunk _had_ managed that, I realized. He was wearing a tight yellow tee-shirt, and while his bottom half wasn’t demorphed yet, I assumed he’d managed pants, as well.

           “Yeah, that took a few tries,” he admitted. “And it’s pretty much just the least flattering skin-tight clothing you can find, and no shoes. But it’s better than being naked.”

           “That’s a relief,” I said with a nervous laugh. “You’ll have to teach the rest of us.”

           Keith nodded. “Right. It’ll be _slightly_ less suspicious to the Yeerks, anyway.”

           Hunk sighed, looking down. “Are we really doing this, then? I mean… Morphing is cool and all, but... Fighting a war with aliens?”

           Keith glared at him. “Of course we are. We can’t just ignore what’s going on now that we know! And this morphing power, it’s not some toy, it’s a tool we can use against them.”

           “Yeah, I get that,” Hunk argued. “But we’re just teenagers, man. Shouldn’t we… I don’t know, get some adults involved? Tell the police or something?”

           “How would we even know which police we could trust?” Pidge pointed out. “Any of them can be Controllers.”

           “Unfortunately, Pidge is right,” I agreed. “We have no way of knowing who’s a Controller and who isn’t. But also…” I glanced at Hunk. He’d paused his morph, so he still looked like a centaur, but on his face, all I could see was a scared kid. “I’m willing to fight, but no one should be forced to. Last night we were put on the spot and we couldn’t take the time to really contemplate the decision. If any of you want to back out, you can.”

           Almost immediately, both Keith and Pidge spoke up to say that they weren’t backing down. Lance, for his part, glanced apologetically at Hunk before turning to me.

           “I won’t lie,” he said. “I’m terrified, too, but… Alfor died for us, man. If there’s a way to fight that asshole Zarkon and the jerks he works for, I’m in.”

           Hunk sighed, scuffing the ground with a hoof. “I guess… When you put it that way…”

           “Besides!” Lance exclaimed, suddenly grinning. “You guys wouldn’t last a day without me! It just so happens that my dad runs a wildlife rehabilitation clinic right here on the farm, where we have a wide variety of wild animals to choose from for any future morphs. And if we need anything bigger, or with more teeth, my mom is the veterinarian at the local zoo, and yours truly just _happens_ to have a passcode to get into the enclosures for whenever she needs an extra hand.”

           “Aren’t the animals in the clinic sick or injured, though?” Pidge asked. “Not really the best morphs.”

           “Actually,” I spoke up. “That won’t be an issue. Morphing is based on DNA, so injuries don’t carry over. Same if our own bodies are injured and we morph, our injuries will be healed.”

           “That sounds useful,” Hunk said.

           “In theory, yeah.” I laughed a bit bitterly, then held up my newly restored arm and took off my glove to show them, waving my fingers. “In practice, though? I’m still not sure how I’m going to explain this.”

           There was a brief pause, and then a flurry of exclamations as everyone gathered around me to look at my arm. Pidge grabbed it roughly, prompting an irritated huff from Keith.

           “He’s not a science experiment, Pidge!”

           Pidge dropped my arm guiltily, and I patted her shoulder. “It’s alright. Keith and I were shocked when we noticed, too.”

           “Do you guys hear something?” Hunk interrupted.

           We all paused, and then I heard it too. A car on gravel.

           My eyes widened. “Someone’s coming. Hunk, you’re still half morphed!”

           “Shit…” He paced nervously. “What do I do? Go human? Horse?”

           “Human,” I said, slipping my glove back on. “Everyone, get in front of him.”

           We all shuffled to awkwardly stand in front of Hunk just as a police car pulled up.

           The cop that stepped out of the vehicle frowned at us, though I couldn’t say I blamed him. We probably looked _extremely_ suspicious.

           “What are you kids hiding behind you, there?”

           “Hiding?” I asked. “What makes you think we’re hiding something?”

           I could almost hear Keith rolling his eyes at me.

           “I wasn’t born yesterday, son,” the cop said. “Why don’t you all step aside, there?”

           “Um, I’m sorry,” Lance said, dripping with attitude. “But do you have a warrant to search my private property?”

           “It’s okay, Lance!” Hunk said, stepping out from behind us. “Sorry about that, sir, I got a huge tear in my pants when I got off the horse earlier and was just changing so I don’t flash anyone. Not that these bike shorts are _much_ better, but you gotta take what you can get, right?”

           The rest of us spread out once Hunk had walked out, showing that there wasn’t anything else behind us save for, I now noticed, a wrecked pair of pants that was probably a result of one of Hunk’s earlier attempts at morphing. Lance apologized sheepishly to the cop, who unfortunately didn’t look impressed.

           “Listen,” he said. “I don’t have time to waste here. I’m looking for a group of kids or teens that were setting off fireworks down at that abandoned construction site last night. Have you heard anything about it?”

           My blood ran cold. Was _that_ the cover story the Yeerks had come up with for what had happened?

           “Pffft, are you kidding?” Lance said, leaning on my shoulder. “We were with this guy, who’s way too straight-laced to let us get away with stuff like that, am I right, Shiro?”

           I let out a small laugh, hoping my nerves didn’t show on my face. “Yeah. I’m pretty much the dad friend of the group. We were at the mall most of the evening, then went stargazing out of town before heading home. We didn’t go anywhere near the construction site.”

           This, at least, was a lie I knew I could back up. I’d gone stargazing with Keith enough times that I knew the field we went out to like the back of my hand. When the cop asked for details, I was able to spin something that sounded perfectly believable.

           The cop put away his notebook after taking my statement and started giving us a spiel about how if we heard anything to let the authorities know right away, but then suddenly cut himself off when he glanced at Pidge.

           “Say… You look awfully familiar. Are you related to someone named Matt?”

           “Um…” Pidge said, looking worried. “Yeah… He’s my brother. Why, is he in trouble?”

           “Not at all. I know him from the Sharing. Great group, you know. You kids should consider joining.”

           “Not my thing,” Pidge said. “But thanks.”

           As the cop finally got back into his car and drove away, she looked down at the ground. “I think the Sharing might be connected to the Yeerks.”

           My eyes widened. Sure, the Sharing was weird, but… That would mean…

           “But then… Matt?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

           “This morning he kept hounding me about the construction site, since he knows I cut through there sometimes, and I was home kind of late. He said he heard about the fireworks being set off and wanted to make sure I wasn’t involved. And now that cop brings up the construction site _and_ the Sharing? Isn’t that… Kind of suspicious?”

           “Fuck,” Keith muttered. Had it been just yesterday that he’d been saying just how suspicious the Sharing was? I got the feeling that he wasn’t too pleased at the idea of being right.

           “Much as I hate to agree with Keith on anything,” Lance said, “even _I_ have to admit that they’re suspicious, at this point…”

           “It definitely doesn’t look good,” I agreed. “We should investigate them, somehow.”

           “They’re hosting a beach party tonight,” Pidge said. “I’d already told Matt I wasn’t interested, but I can say I’ve changed my mind. We can have a coupe of us go in morph to spy on Matt and the other full members, see if we can find anything out.”

           “And if we’re wrong, we get to hang out at a beach party,” Hunk said, “That’s kind of win-win.”

           I nodded. “That’s as good a plan as any. Okay, well, since I can’t really go to the beach without showing off my newly healed arm, I’ll go in dog morph. People bring their dogs to the beach all the time, so I shouldn’t be suspicious. And we can have someone else maybe do some kind of aerial surveillance? Lance, do you have any birds we can acquire?”

           “I’ve got a few, yeah. We should all acquire one, in case we need them later.”

           He led us to his barn, which was full of cages and stalls where injured animals were awaiting treatment. He had four larger birds, and my eyes were immediately drawn to the largest— a bald eagle.

           “Oh, wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these up close.”

           “Probably not,” Lance agreed. “Most birds of prey aren’t crazy about humans. Luckily, most of these are medicated, so they shouldn’t be too aggressive as long as you don’t make any sudden movements.”

           He grabbed a falconer’s glove from a nearby table and opened the bald eagle’s cage, coaxing the bird onto his arm. Once he had it calmed down, I carefully reached over to stroke its head.

           “Hey there, buddy,” I whispered. “Just borrowing some DNA. Hope that’s okay.”

           One by one, we each acquired a different bird. Pidge was drawn to the smallest among them, a peregrine falcon according to Lance. Keith picked out a red-tailed hawk, while Lance and Hunk both acquired the remaining osprey.

           “I can do the aerial surveillance,” Keith volunteered. “I’m not very social, and I’ve been critical of the Sharing in the past, so it would be weird for me to show up. Pidge at least has the excuse of being Matt’s sister.”

           “Makes sense,” I said with a nod. “Any objections?”

           “Not an objection, but there’s one more thing I wanted to mention,” Lance said. “Before he sent me away, Alfor managed to… I dunno, do some weird alien magic thing and zap some information in my brain. I’ve been trying to put it all together, but it might help us know what to look or listen for?”

           “Dude,” Keith smacked his arm lightly, “Why didn’t you say anything before now?”

           “Uh, ‘cause we hadn’t decided on if we were risking our lives to fight the aliens yet, obviously.”

           “It’s fine, Keith,” I said. “Tell us what you know, Lance.”

           “So first of all, Yeerks have a dependency on something called Kandrona. I’m not sure what it is, but they need to feed on it every three days by leaving their hosts and going into some sort of pool.”

           I nodded. “So we listen for any mention of a schedule, pools, or feeding.”

           “There was also something about his lion ship,” he said. “He made five of them, apparently, and they’re part of something called Voltron. I didn’t get much about that, but… I think one of the other lions might be on Earth. The blue one, in case that matters. I don’t think Alfor knew its exact location, though.”

           “Voltron and lions,” I added to my mental checklist. “Got it.”

           “Other than that,” Lance shrugged. “I got a mental picture of what a bunch of aliens look like? Most of them we saw last night, though. I’ve been going over the others with Hunk, and he’s planning on sketching them out at some point.”

           “I doubt we’ll run into aliens in a public place,” Pidge said. “But that could be useful later.”

           “Alright. Is there anything else we need to know before we commit to this?”

           No one spoke up, so I nodded. “Then we all know what we need to do.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for some spying.

Here’s the thing: I didn’t particularly care _that_ much for the beach.

           Before the accident, my family and I lived further from the coast, so it was never a huge staple in my life. And then after, I tended to be self-conscious of my scars, so I only ever went in the dead of summer, when the heat and humidity became unbearable.

           But now that I was _barred_ from going as my human self because I risked revealing my sudden healed arm? Suddenly all I wanted was to go enjoy it.

           «They’re playing beach volleyball. I could actually do that now,» I complained. «Because I have two arms again. Only I can’t let anyone know.»

           «We could always come by at night when there’s less people,» Keith suggested. As the only other one in morph, he had the misfortune of being the only one who could reply to me in public. «Or find a beach that isn’t accessible without wings.»

           «That’s true…» I said, though couldn’t help but feel like it wouldn’t be the same.

           I let out a small whine as I watched the volleyball players. While the dog brain was excited at all the people and food and smells, my own mood was over-taking it.

           Someone who was walking by gave me a scratch behind the ears, and I immediately felt a little better.

           “Quit looking depressed, Shiro,” that someone, who turned out to be Lance, whispered. “You’re a dog on the beach. At least pretend to have fun.”

           I sighed internally, but he was right. I could feel sorry for myself some other time.

           I let go of some of my control over the morph, letting the dog brain and its optimism take over. I went to take a dip in the water, then chased some seagulls, trying to act like any other dog would, until Keith finally spoke again.

           «I’m seeing a bunch of people meeting up privately, including Matt. They’ve got a security guard stopping anyone except full members from going in.»

           «Lead the way,» I told him.

           He led me to a more secluded part of the beach. The security guard glanced at me when I went by, but then ignored me. I was just another dog playing on the beach and chasing an interesting smell.

           Soon enough, I was within hearing range of the group. I made a point to stay out of Matt’s line of sight. He’d met Sven before, and I didn’t want to risk him recognizing me.

           «It looks like they’re waiting for someone,» I told Keith.

           «Could be the guy who’s on his way,» he replied. «Why does he look famil… Wait, is that Iverson?»

           «Iverson as in our vice-principal?» I asked, incredulous.

           «Yeah. Oh man, if Iverson is secretly being controlled by an alien, that explains so much…»

           The man in question arrived just then. I couldn’t quite see him clearly from where I was, but as soon as he spoke, I immediately recognized his voice. It was definitely Iverson.

           He launched the meeting, and at first it all seemed normal. They were discussing potential new full members, and ideas for the next event. I was starting to think that maybe we'd let our paranoia get the better of us, that maybe The Sharing was perfectly normal after all.

           At least until the next subject came up.

           "Now, for the next order of business," Iverson said. "Has anyone had any luck finding information on the kids who were at the construction site last night?"

           I held my breath.

           "We're still searching," Matt replied. "But I suspect that my host's sister might have been one of them. She cuts through there sometimes, and she arrived home late, and looking nervous. But at least I finally managed to convince her to come here tonight. We can either make her one of us, or kill her."

           I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach.

           I knew, logically, that this meant that Matt was a Controller. That the person speaking wasn't him, but an alien slug in his brain. But to hear my friend talk so casually about murdering his own sister left me shaking.

           "We can't just go around killing people in a public place," Iverson scolded. "Especially at Sharing events. It will be too suspicious, and we don't have full control over this city's law enforcement. And besides that, we can't kill everyone who _might_ have been there. We need proof."

           "Then what do we do?" Matt demanded.

           "We wait. Kids can’t keep their mouths shut for long. One of them will slip up soon, and that’s when we’ll get them.”

           I waited a bit more, trying to listen to the rest of the meeting, but I was having trouble focusing. I finally caught wind of another useful piece of information: Matt mentioned that he'd just been to the Yeerk pool, and was returning again Monday night.

           That's when I heard another voice behind me, faint, but recognizable. Lance!

           I turned away from the meeting and hurried towards the sound of Lance's voice. I finally found him speaking to the cop that had been at his farm that morning.

           "What are you even doing back here?" the cop demanded. "This area is for full members only!"

           "Jeeze, I was just out looking for beach glass!" Lance replied, waving his hand impatiently. "Chill out, will ya?"

           "You can search this area once the meeting is over," the cop insisted.

           "Alright, alright, I'm going!" Lance rolled his eyes and turned away, walking back towards the main part of the beach.

           I trotted up to him to catch up. «Lance, what were doing back there?» I demanded.

           "There you are," he muttered. "I was looking for you. You and mullet only have about 15 minutes left in morph."

           «Shit,» I muttered. «Keith, we need to morph out. Lance, tell the others to meet us outside the beach.»

           Lance nodded, and Keith replied a quick «Got it.» before I spotted his shadow heading back towards where we'd left our outer clothes. (Or all of them, in my case. I still hadn't figured out the trick to morphing even tight-fitting clothing)

           I hurried to follow him. Luckily it wasn't all that far.

           Keith was already there and halfway demorphed when I got there. I noticed quickly that he apparently hadn't figured out how to morph clothing yet, either, so I turned away to give him privacy as I did my own demorph.

           Once we were done and dressed again, I slumped against a nearby sand dune, feeling exhausted. Keith joined me.

           "I hate morphing back," he admitted.

           "Me too," I confessed, glad for the distraction from what I'd learned. "I feel so stiff and clumsy in my human body.”

           "And blind," Keith added. "Hawk vision is wicked, by the way."

           "Yeah?" I asked. "How was flying?"

           "So cool!" he said, grinning. "You've got to try it soon."

           "Definitely," I agreed. I was itching to try out that bald eagle morph. "Maybe we can meet up early the next time we go stargazing and dedicate an hour or so to flying."

           "I'm in," he replied, just as Hunk, Lance, and Pidge started arriving.

           "So what did you learn?" Hunk asked. "Please tell me you learned that the Sharing is completely normal and that they talked about, I don't know, bake sale profits or something."

           I sighed, shaking my head. "I'm sorry. Pidge was right. The Sharing is a front for the Yeerks, and Matt's one of them. So is Iverson."

           "Our vice principal is a Controller?" Lance asked. "Oh, that explains so much..."

           "They're really itching to find us. Matt..." I closed my eyes, then took a deep breath before continuing, "The thing in Matt's head wants us dead. Luckily Iverson managed to talk him out of just killing anyone he found suspicious. But they'll be on the lookout for anyone who might be talking about what happened, so we have to be extremely careful.

           "I also found out that Matt is scheduled to go back to the Yeerk pool on Monday. Maybe one of us can spy on Iverson in the meantime, to try and find out where it is so we can mount a rescue. Lance, do you think you have anything we could use?"

           "Hmmm," He tapped his chin, "Most of the animals at the clinic would stand out too much... Although... Well, they're not patients, but we get a lot of lizards around the barn. They're small, and most people wouldn't notice them. Fast, too, if you need to get away in a hurry. I'd need help catching one."

           "Can we even do morphs that small?" Hunk asked.

           I shrugged. "I guess we'll find out."

~*~

           Finding and acquiring the lizard, a green anole, turned out to be the easy part. Finding a safe place at school to morph it that was close to Iverson’s office, on the other hand, was trickier.

           “My locker is close to his office,” Lance whispered while we waited in the cafeteria for the first bell. “Why don’t you hide in there?”

           I gave him a look. “Really? You really think I fit in a locker?”

           He glanced at my shoulders and sighed. “Oh, right.”

           “There are bathrooms not far from there, but then I’d lose all my clothes.”

           “You still haven’t figured out how to morph clothing?”

           I glared at him.

           He rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. I’ll go in with you and get your clothes for you.”

           “Because two people going into a bathroom stall together doesn’t look weird,” I pointed out.

           “Look, if you don’t want to morph the lizard, I’ll do it.”

           I sighed. I don’t know why I was so nervous about the lizard morph. Maybe it was just because it was so small and vulnerable. Or maybe it just didn’t seem to be as fun as a dog.

           “No, it’s fine, I’ll do it,” I said with a sigh. “We’ll probably have to take turns anyway, right? I might as well go first.” The plan was to hide in Iverson’s office and listen in to his phone calls, to see if he said anything suspicious. But if I skipped too many classes, I’d end up getting in trouble with school and, ironically, would be sent to the vice principal’s office. So Lance had passed the lizard around to everyone earlier that morning so that we could each take a turn spying, and only miss one class each.

           “Let’s go, then,” he motioned his head towards the hallway. “The first bell is soon.”

           Being further away from the usual student hang-out areas, the bathroom we needed was luckily empty when we got there, so there was no one to question Lance and I going into the cramped stall together.

           I focused on the lizard I’d acquired the night before, and immediately began shrinking. Here’s the funny thing about shrinking, though: It feels like you’re falling.

           I shut my eyes tight as the ground rushed up, fighting the feeling of vertigo. Like with the dog morph, I could feel my bones and organs shifting, and my spine elongating into a tail. My skin prickled as it changed into pebbly reptile skin.

           I cracked open my eyes once the shrinking seemed to have stopped and found myself surrounded by darkness. The lizard brain bubbled up in the back of my mind. It was nervous, but the darkness seemed to comfort it.

           Then the clothing started moving as Lance picked it up, and the lizard panicked.

           Movement! Light! Danger!

           I bolted, and heard a whispered “Wow, Shiro, chill!”, but I couldn’t manage to focus on it. All I knew was that I needed to find a new safe place to hide.

           Except there wasn't one! There was light everywhere, and a big lumbering form was trying to catch me.

           Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted another movement. Smaller, and faster than the big form. A spider! My lizard brain recognized it as prey, and almost before I could even register the movement, I’d run over and clamped my jaw around it.

           Which is right around the time my human brain caught up to what was happening.

           “Gross,” the voice I now recognised as Lance said.

           «Oh my God,» I exclaimed. I tried to spit out the spider, but it was already halfway swallowed. «Okay, no, I’m not doing this, I’m morphing out.»

           “Wait, no!” Lance exclaimed, and then he cut himself off as the bathroom door opened and someone came in.

           I’d already started morphing out, but halted the morph at the sound. Slowly, I forced myself back to the lizard form, trying not to think about the half-eaten spider in my throat.

           «Okay. Okay, fine. Just. Hurry up and bring me to Iverson’s office.»

           Lance quickly shoved my clothes into his backpack, then gently picked me up and placed me in his pocket. I fought the lizard instinct to panic as he flushed the toilet, then left the stall and washed his hands so he wouldn’t look suspicious.

           There were a few minutes where I couldn’t tell what was going on other than the fact that Lance was walking, until he took me out of his pocket. We were in a large area that I vaguely recognized as one of the school’s hallways.

           “Alright, Iverson’s office is just ahead,” he whispered. “I’m going to put you down facing the right direction, so just keep going forward. You’re small enough you should be able to fit into the crack under the door.”

           He placed me down on the ground gently. The lizard’s eyesight wasn’t too bad, but with everything being so much larger, it was hard to tell what was what. Trusting Lance, I started moving forward.

           A sudden vibration in the ground made me freeze up. «Lance, is that you?»

           He didn’t answer, which meant he had either left already, or there was someone around who would question why he was talking to a lizard. Considering the vibrations were getting louder, my money was on the second one.

           Suddenly, a large shadow loomed almost directly above me. I bolted out of the way, barely avoiding the shoe that landed right where I’d been standing.

           “Mr. Iverson!” I heard Lance exclaim. “Good morning!”

           Wait, that shoe was Iverson’s?

           “Lance,” Iverson said. “Can I help you with anything?”

           “Nope, I was about to head to class,” Lance replied. “Just thought I’d say hi.”

           While Lance was distracting him, I climbed onto the back of the shoe that was in front of me, the sticky pads of my feet gripping easily to its surface.

           Iverson didn’t stick around to talk to Lance for long. Before I knew it, the shoe was moving as Iverson continued to his destination.

           It only took a few minutes for him to reach it. He opened up a door and stepped inside a room, then closed the door behind him.

           It was dark in the new room. Darker than the hallway, anyway, even after Iverson turned on the light.

           I scrambled off his shoe and ran up to the wall, scurrying up so that I could see better.

           Was this… a janitor’s closet?

           Iverson walked over to a sink and did something to the levers on it. I heard a click, and then the creaking of hinges as a hidden door in the wall opened up, revealing a staircase leading down.

           I didn't recognize the smell that came from beyond the door. Neither did the lizard. I _did_ recognize the noises, though.

~*~

           “It was just… screaming,” I told the others when we met at lunch. “Human screams.”

           Hunk looked ready to be sick to his stomach. I didn't blame him.

           “So there's a creepy alien pool under our school?” Lance asked. “This is like… horror movie levels of bullshit.”

           “At least we know how to get in,” Keith pointed out. “Right?”

           I nodded. “I think so. I didn't see how he opened up the wall, but I saw how the levers on the sink looked afterwards. If we can't figure out how to open it normally, I'm sure we can find a morph powerful enough to knock the wall down.”

           Pidge looked over at Lance. “You said you could get us into some animal enclosures at the zoo?”

           He nodded. “Yeah, my mom is the head vet, and I help her feed the animals sometimes, so I have the access codes. I don't think we'll need them, though. We could just morph birds and go right down into them. Don't even have to pay admission. But me having the codes will be a good excuse if we get caught.”

           “I know we need big dangerous morphs and all,” Hunk pointed out. “But we're not going to go pet, like, lions or something, are we?”

           Lance laughed. “We do have lions, and that might even be kind of fitting, considering Alfor's ship... But I was actually thinking of a panther for myself. We have a really sweet one named Blue that I've known since she was a cub, so she'll let me acquire her with no trouble. But if you want something that's still tough but that won't attack you, I can think of a few things.”

           Hunk groaned and dropped his head to the table.

           “We should go now,” Keith said. “We don't know how long it'll take us, and Matt might decide to go right after school, and we'd miss him.”

           “He usually goes to his Sharing meetings after supper,” Pidge said, “And it'll be suspicious if we _all_ cut class at the same time. To be honest, we probably shouldn't be hanging out together like this, either, since we never did before. Shiro and Keith were friends, same with Hunk and Lance, and I kept to myself. And I mean, everyone knows that Lance and Keith don't get along. People will think it's weird if they're suddenly acting like friends.”

           Keith crossed his arms and huffed, leaning back in his chair. “I… guess you're right…”

           “After school then,” I said.

           “So are we morphing? Or paying admission?” Pidge asked.

           “I'm sure we could convince them to let us in for free,” Hunk said sarcastically. “We'll just tell them we're fighting for justice and freedom, like some sort of paladin or something.”

           “Paladins, huh?” I grinned. “I kind of like the sound of that.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to gear up for battle.

We ended up going to the zoo by air, giving me a chance to try out the bald eagle morph.

«Keith. Keith, oh my God. You were right, this is the _best thing ever_!» I exclaimed, soaring high above the rest of the group.

«Show-off!» Pidge called out. She was several miles below us, having more trouble getting lift with her smaller wings.

«I have to admit, this is pretty cool,» Hunk said. «We’re _actually flying_!»

«Isn’t it?» Keith said. Even though it was just his voice in my head, I could have sworn I could hear the smile in it. «I’ve always wanted to be a pilot, but this is something else.»

«You want to be a pilot?» Lance asked.

Immediately, Keith seemed to close off a bit. «Yeah, what of it?»

«Nothing. Was just thinking that’s actually kind of cool.»

I held my breath as Keith seemed to hesitate at this offer of friendship. I didn’t know the full reason he and Lance didn’t seem to get along, though I suspected it was mostly a clash of personality. But if we were going to be working together to take down the Yeerks, it was good to see at least one of them making an effort.

«Yeah, well…» Keith finally replied. «I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up, so I spent a lot of time playing flight simulators, and just… took a liking to it. But this is _so much_ cooler.»

«I mean, in fairness, this is pretty hard to beat,» Lance agreed.

The zoo loomed up ahead, and Lance directed us to an area that was out of sight from the crowds, in what looked like a wooded enclosure.

I hung back as the rest of them landed and demorphed, under the guise of keeping watch. Once everyone was human again, though, and I swooped down to perch on a tree branch, Pidge glanced at me curiously.

“Uh… Shiro?”

I didn’t answer, and Lance sighed. “Your human form is naked, isn’t it?”

«Look, I just can’t figure out the morphing clothing thing, okay?» I grumbled, embarrassed. «I’ll just stick around in the bald eagle morph until I need to acquire something.»

        Lance rolled his eyes, but Keith smiled at me sympathetically. He'd still had trouble with clothing when we'd been at the beach, so I knew he must have only just figured it out, himself.

        “So, I hate to be the paranoid one,” Hunk started. “Actually, that's a lie, I'm perfectly content being the paranoid one. But uh. Which enclosure are we in right now? Nothing dangerous, right Lance? You made sure of that?”

        “Relax, buddy,” Lance reassured him. “I know this zoo like the back of my hand. We're in the gorilla enclosure.”

        Hunk didn't look reassured. “Gorillas can be dangerous.”

        “Yeah, if you piss them off or they feel threatened,” Lance confirmed. “But we're not going to do that. We're going to approach them nice and gently, and you're going to shake one of their hands and acquire it.”

        “Me?” Hunk asked.

        “Yeah. If we need to tinker with anything while we're down in the Yeerk pool, I'd rather you be the one with opposable thumbs.”

        “I guess that makes sense…” he mumbled.

        «Why is Hunk the one we want to have opposable thumbs?» I asked, curious.

        “My dad is an engineer, and taught me a lot about it, since it's what I want to do, too,” he answered. “So okay. Where do we find these gorillas?”

        “There's a feeding area over that way,” Lance pointed.

        We made our way over, and I spotted movement. «I think I see one.»

        “I see it too,” Lance said. “And… Uh oh.”

        “Uh oh what?” Hunk asked.

        “Lance? What the hell are you doing here?” a feminine voice called out.

        Next to the gorilla, partially concealed behind a tree, I could now see a young woman. I couldn't help but notice that she had the same tanned skin, dark hair, and blue eyes as Lance.

        “Veronica!” Lance laughed nervously. “Fancy seeing you here!”

        “I work here,” she replied. “Did you  _ seriously  _ sneak your friends into the enclosure using mom's security codes? She'll kill you if she finds out.”

        “Which is why you're not going to tell her, right?” He grinned, making finger guns at her.  

        Veronica narrowed her eyes, glaring at him for a moment, then sighed and mumbled something about annoying baby brothers. “Alright, fine. Who are your friends? And why aren't you wearing any shoes?”

        Lance introduced the others to his sister, sidestepping the shoe question, while I hung back out of sight. Despite her earlier caution, Veronica seemed to be perfectly happy to let Hunk shake hands with the gorilla she'd been feeding.

        “Can I show them Blue, too?” Lance asked.

        Her eyes widened. “Seriously? Gorillas are one thing, but you want me to let you and your friends into the panther enclosure? I'd get fired  _ so _ fast. And then sued by their parents, because they'll have gotten mauled by a panther.”

        “Can  _ I _ at least go see her while I'm here?” He pouted, “You know that cat loves me.”

        “God knows why,” Veronica shook her head, looking pleadingly up towards the heavens. “But sure, you at least know what you're doing, and it's time for her to get fed anyway, so you might as well do it. But your friends are staying out in the hallway.”

        She led them to a door in the back of the gorilla enclosure that likely led to a hallway that connected them all. Unable to follow them, I took to the air again and tried to figure out where to head out next.

        As I was trying to figure out which animal was where from the air, I heard a thought-speech voice call out to me.

        «You still up there, Shiro?» Keith asked.

        «Keith? Yeah, I'm here. What are you doing morphed again?»

        I spotted a red-tailed hawk over in the distance. Was that him?

        «I figure that Lance's sister isn't going to let us go near anything  _ actually _ dangerous, so I snuck away. Come on, I think I know what I want to acquire.»

        I followed the hawk, hoping that it was actually Keith and not just any random bird. However, I hesitated when I saw what animal he was hovering over.

        «That  _ is  _ you, there, right?» I asked. «I'm not following some other hawk into the grizzly bear enclosure?»

        «Oh, that's me alright,» he replied, sounding excited. «Man, look at the size of that bear’s paws!»

        «Yeah, I see it,» I replied nervously. «Are you sure about this?»

        «What, are you scared?» he challenged.

        «Terrified.»

        «It looks like the bigger one is sleeping, and acquiring them puts them into a trance, so it should stay asleep while we're acquiring it. It'll be fine.»

        Deciding to trust Keith, I took a deep breath and followed him down to land near the sleeping bear.

        Keith was already landed and halfway demorphed by the time I landed. I looked around quickly to make sure we were out of sight before starting my own demorph. Explaining away two random kids in a grizzly bear enclosure was one thing. Explaining why one of us was naked would have been slightly more challenging.

        Keith glanced at me once I was demorphed, and I thought I caught a hint of red on his face before he turned back to the sleeping bear.

        I didn't dare speak as I watched him approach the bear. Our lack of shoes made the ground painful to step on, but it  _ did _ at least have the advantage of being quieter.

        Keith made it to the bear without it waking, and placed a hand on its flank. The bear opened one eye to look at him, but then that eye slowly closed as the trance kicked in.

        After a moment, Keith turned to me and waved me over.

        I approached and placed my own hand on the bear, focusing on acquiring its DNA. It was hard  _ not _ to focus on its large, powerful paws and ink-black claws.

        “The trance only lasts about a minute after breaking contact,” Keith whispered. “So we need to be ready to morph and get out  _ fast. _ ”

        I nodded, mouth dry.

        “On three,” he said. “One… Two… THREE!”

        I pulled away from the bear, putting as much distance as I could between us, and immediately started focusing on the eagle.

        Almost as soon as I'd started, I stumbled as my legs shifted into awkward bird legs that  _ really _ weren't meant for running away. My skin itched as a feather pattern covered it like tattoos before growing into real feathers.

_         Come on,  _ I urged the morph,  _ I need wings! _

        I started shrinking, and dared to look back at the bear.

        It was awake.

        It glared in my direction as it stood up on all fours. It started moving towards me and I desperately flapped my arms, hoping my wings had formed.

        To my surprise, I lifted off the ground. Too slowly though! The bear was almost on me.

        It suddenly reared back and roared as another bird flew towards its face. Keith!

        «I've got it distracted, Shiro! Quick, get in the air!»

        I didn't waste time, getting airborne faster than I would have thought possible. As soon as I was out of the bear’s range, Keith left it alone and joined me.

        «Hey, do you think we could maybe  _ never do that again _ ?» I asked, my heart beating so fast I worried it would burst out if my chest.

        «Yeah, that was a bit too close for comfort,» Keith agreed, though I could hear the excitement in his voice.

        «You actually enjoyed that, didn't you?» I accused.

        Instead of answering me, Keith directed his next comment at the rest of the group. «Hey guys, if you can hear me, Shiro and I got our battle morphs. Have Pidge contact us once Matt leaves, and we'll meet at the school.»

        «Speaking of the school,» I said to just him. «We need to make a quick detour there before heading up my place, so I can pick up my clothes.»

        «Sure,» he said. «Then maybe you can actually practice so you don't keep ending up naked? Not that I mind, of course.»

~*~

Keith and I were still riding the adrenaline high when we got back to my house. I’d barely said hi to my grandfather when Keith grabbed my arm and pulled me up the stairs.

I laughed, letting myself get dragged to my room. Keith closed the door and leaned against it, grinning.

“That was the most incredible thing I’ve _ever_ experienced in my life!” he exclaimed.

“We almost got mauled to death by bears,” I reminded him, though couldn’t keep the grin off my own face.

“But we didn’t!” He moved away from the door and came closer to me. “God, Shiro… I’ve never felt anything like what I felt today. That rush of danger, and barely escaping with our lives. And just think: Those powerful creatures that could have killed us today? We can _become_ them now. All that danger and power is just a thought away.”

“Danger and power…” I repeated. “Somehow, those words suit you.”

“I’m pretty sure I’ve found my calling,” he joked. Or at least, I think he was joking. He came closer still, and placed a hand on my arm. He looked up at me, his eyes fierce and wild. “You know what I felt like, today? Invincible. And I’m so glad that you’re the one I got to experience that with.”

I think it was in that moment, looking down at Keith, at this beautiful boy who’d never seemed more alive before now, when he’d stared death in the face, that I realized that I was in love with him. I wanted nothing more than to lean down and kiss him, to taste that wild fire and never let go.

And from the way he glanced down at my lips, I was pretty sure he would let me.

“Boys?”

Keith and I both jumped apart at my grandfather’s voice. The door was still closed, but his voice was close enough that it had come from right outside.

“Yeah?” I called out, hoping my voice didn’t betray just how fast my heart was beating.

“Dinner is ready, if you wanted to come down.”

Oh. Right.

“We’ll be right down,” I answered. “Thanks.”

I glanced back at Keith, who was looking away, his face red.

Had that really almost happened?

“We’d better go eat,” he said. “We have a long night ahead of us.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that almost-kiss scene is something I'd been wanting to write for Tobias and Rachel for YEARS, but never got around to it. When I decided to write this fic, I realized just how well it would work for Shiro and Keith, too, and jumped on the opportunity to include it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to infiltrate the Yeerk pool, but it seems like there are already problems before they even start...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another violence warning for this chapter for a battle scene and brief mentions of cannibalism.

           Pidge called us about an hour after supper. We ended up catching the city bus and meeting the others outside the school.

           Or at least, most of the others.

           “Where the hell is Lance?” Keith grumbled. “Did he chicken out?”

           “No way,” Hunk said. “He wants to avenge Alfor bad. It’s probably just taking him longer to get here since he lives further out than the rest of us.”

           The longer we waited, though, the more it became obvious that Lance wasn't coming.

           “When I called him, his mom said he was out feeding the animals,” Pidge said. “I told her to just tell him to meet us at the school once he came back… Maybe she just didn't give him the message?”

           “Maybe…” Hunk looked worried. “I should call him again, just in case.”

           “We're wasting time,” Pidge said while Hunk made his way to a nearby payphone. “We'll lose our chance to save Matt if we keep waiting!”

           When Hunk came back, though, the look on his face didn’t bode well.

           “His mom said he never came back in from feeding the animals,” he told us, wringing his hands nervously. “She said she thought he might have gone out riding, but all the horses were still in the stable. Do you think something happened to him?”

           “We'll worry about Lance  _ after _ we save Matt,” Pidge demanded.

           I sighed. “Pidge is right. We’re the only ones who can help Matt right now. Lance has a family that can look for him and call the police if needed.”

           I didn't feel good about the decision, but it was a hard truth. We didn't know when another opportunity to save Matt would come up.

           We headed into the school, finding the front door unlocked.

           It was eerie to wander the school hallways after hours. You couldn't help but be uncomfortably aware of the fact that you weren't supposed to be there.

           We found our way to the janitor’s closet near Iverson’s office without running into anyone else. Once there, I twisted the knobs on the sink to the configuration I'd seen Iverson use, and held my breath when I heard a click, and the hidden door opened.

           The faint sound of screams echoed up through the door. I glanced back at the others. “Ready?”

           “No,” Hunk said. “But we don't really have a choice, do we?”

           I looked at Keith and Pidge, and while they looked shaken, they both nodded.

           We made our way down the stairs, trying to look as if we were supposed to be there. Hopefully, anyone who saw us would just assume we were Controllers, ourselves.

           The further down we went, the harder it was to ignore the screams. I could make out begging, cursing, and crying, and I struggled not to cry, myself, at the sound.

           We rounded a corner, and I froze.

           Ahead of me, the staircase opened up to a vast cavern.

           “Oh my God.” Hunk whispered behind me.

           “That's not just under the school,” Keith said. “That's under most of the city.”

           “We have to keep moving,” I said, though my mouth was dry at the sight. “We can't call attention to ourselves.”

           The cavern was the length and width of several football fields, with dozens of staircases that likely led to other hidden doors. It was filled with cages that held both humans and aliens. Mostly human and Hork-Bajir— the bladed lizards Alfor had claimed were once peaceful— but I could see some Galra, too. Off to one end was another area, and the sight was almost worst than the cages.

           It looked like a lounge. Here, people sat around on couches and watched television, laughing as if they weren't surrounded by horrors. This area was mostly filled with Galra and the giant centipedal Taxxons, but there was an uncomfortable amount of humans, and a handful of Hork-Bajir.

           “What the hell?” Keith demanded at the sight.

           “Volunteers,” Pidge almost spat out the words. “People who sold out to the Yeerks.”

           At the center of the cavern was a pool of swampy looking liquid. There were two piers on either end of the pool. On one, people calmly walked to the end and knelt, leaning their heads over the edge. Something grey slithered out of their ear and splashed into the pool bellow.

           I guess that was when you would find out if someone was a voluntary Controller or not. The voluntary Controllers would just get back up and walk over to the lounge area. Those who weren't volunteers… the slaves… they'd try to take advantage of their few moments of freedom to run, but within seconds, a Hork-Bajir or Galra guard would grab them and drag them over to a cage while they struggled.

           On the other pier, the voluntary Controllers walked to the end and leaned over to press their ear against the sludge, where presumably the Yeerk re-entered them. This was more obvious with the involuntary Controllers, though. They were dragged from their cages by guards, kicking and screaming, and their heads were forcefully dunked into the water. Afterwards, they stood up calmly, slaves once again.

           I spotted a familiar face being dragged to that pier, and my blood ran cold once I realized who it was.

           “Oh no,” Keith whispered, recognizing him at the same time as me. “Lance!”

           “What?” Hunk asked.

           “On the infestation pier,” I said. I recognized the Controller that was holding him, too. It was the cop that had showed up at his farm, and that had stopped him at the Sharing beach party. He must have thought he was too suspicious and gone back to the farm to grab him.

           “Okay, change of plans,” I said. “We don't have time for subtle. Everyone, get to your battle morphs. I'll get airborne to see if I can spot Matt. Hunk, you get the cages, and get as many people out as you can. The rest of you cause a diversion and try and take down the guards.”

           I was already morphing by the time I was done talking, sprouting feathers and wings and talons. I took to the air as soon as I was able to and scanned the crowds to try and find Matt.

           I heard a roar behind me as Keith finished his bear morph and got everyone's attention.

           I saw Lance's head snap up at the sound, but the cop didn't loosen his grip. Well, I could help with that.

           «Help is incoming, Lance!» I called out to him before dive bombing the cop and raking at his eyes.

           He cursed and let go of Lance to cover his face. Lance took the opportunity to shove him away and duck into the increasingly panicking crowd. Moments later, I spotted the black fur of a panther as he tackled one of the Galra.

           Now that he was safe, I went back to looking for Matt.

           Finally, I spotted him in one of the cages. He was cheering as Hunk, in gorilla morph, grabbed two Hork-Bajir by the neck and slammed their heads together.

           «Hunk, Matt’s in the cage just to your left!» I told him.

           «Got it!» He turned and grabbed the door of the cage, ripping it clean off its hinges. «Okay, I'm really liking this morph.»

           He started herding the prisoners towards the nearest staircase, since Keith was busy wreaking havoc in bear morph in front of the staircase we'd come from. Lance had joined him, but was slowed down by a bloody gash in his flank, and they were vastly outnumbered. I didn't see Pidge anywhere.

           «Okay, we have Matt, we need to go. Where's Pidge?»

           «I'm taking care of the Taxxons!» She called out.

           I looked around and finally spotted her. She was surrounded by the giant centipedes, and much smaller than them in her badger morph, but had managed to gain the upper hand. It turned out that you didn't need to bother getting a killing blow against a Taxxon— You just needed to get them bleeding, and then their fellow Taxxons couldn't resist their hunger enough to stop themselves from gorging on their brothers.

           «Shiro, I don't think Keith is in control of his morph!» Lance called out.

           I turned back to them to find them backed into a corner. Both of them were still fighting, but while Lance seemed to be trying to aim to disable instead of kill, Keith was going for the killing blow more often than not, and had sustained a lot of injuries where he could have defended, but hadn't.

           I dove down to rake at the eyes of one of the Hork-Bajir that was flanking them. As I did, Keith swiped a giant bear paw at me, just barely missing me.

           «Keith! Snap out of it!» I exclaimed.

           He responded with a bellowing roar.

           «Keith, it's Shiro!» I tried again, attacking one of the Galra this time. «The bear is in control, you need to get a hold of yourself! Hunk has Matt, and we're getting out of here!»

           «Shiro?» he asked shakily, hesitating. «What?»

           «Thank God,» I said. «Come on, we're leaving!»

           As luck would have it, though, things weren't going to be that easy.

           Something zinged past me, just barely catching a few feathers and making the air smell like ozone. I stumbled in the air and turned to see a large Galra holding what seemed to be a laser gun in his right hand. His left arm and hand had been replaced by some kind of floating prosthetic claw that I definitely didn't want to mess with.

           Next to him was Zarkon.

           I almost ignored the two other figures with them, at first. There was a cloaked figure whose face was shadowed, and a new alien I hadn't seen before that looked like some kind of blue centaur with a long, scorpion-like tail that ended in a curved, dangerous looking blade. But then something inside me told me to pay attention -- that I was looking at something evil.

           «What the...» Lance said, «That centaur thing… That’s an Andalite! Didn't Alfor say they were our allies? What is it doing with Zarkon?»

           «Well, well, Zarkon,» a new voice boomed into my head. Considering the Andalite didn't have any visible mouth, I assumed the voice belonged to him. «Just a few days ago you were telling me that you'd taken care of the Altean race, yet here we have several morph-capable creatures invading my Pool. And since the Andalite fleet is nowhere near this sector of space, these could only be Alteans.»

           “There were bound to be stragglers, Visser,” Zarkon replied. “My generals and I will take care of it.”

           Visser… I remembered, then, Alfor mentioning a Yeerk named Visser Three who had an Andalite host.

           «I don't like others meddling in my business, Zarkon,» Visser Three spat out. «Earth is my business. If you can't get rid of these Alteans, I may need to rethink our deal.»

           «Guys, we have a problem,» Hunk said, directing his thought speech just to us.

           I glanced over to where I'd seen him last, by one of the stairwells. The way forward was blocked by some sort of force field, leaving Hunk, Matt, and the other prisoners stuck on this side of it.

           A quick look around revealed that all the stairways were blocked the same way… And also revealed the source.

           The hooded figure next to Zarkon had raised her arm, and a dark pulse of energy surrounded her hand.

           As Zarkon and Visser Three continued to argue, I assessed the situation. The fighting had slowed to a stand-still while the two leaders were talking and posturing, but that wasn't going to last long. Many Controllers had taken advantage of the lull to grab long ranged weapons, so I knew that once things started up again, it would be much deadlier.

           «The robed witch next to Zarkon,» I said to the others, not sure how else to describe her. «She's the one blocking the exits, but she's not watching the air. If I attack her, I might be able to distract her enough for the rest of you to escape with Matt and the other prisoners.»

           «What about you?» Keith demanded. «We're not leaving you here.»

           «If I'm lucky, I can take her out permanently and follow the rest of you out. If I'm not…» I glanced up. «The ceiling of the cave looks like it has a lot of nooks and crannies I can hide in until they lose interest in me.»

           «No way,» Keith said. «If anyone has to risk staying behind, then I'll do it.»

           «My morph is the easiest one to get away and hide in,» I argued. «Trust me and get ready to go as soon as the barrier is down, because it's about to get ugly.»

           Before Keith could argue further, I dove.

           The witch spotted me just before I struck. She managed to dodge, but lost concentration on holding the barriers up. I saw them drop out of the corner of my eye.

           «MOVE!» I shouted to the others, weaving around the witch and raking my talons towards her whenever I got an opening.

           It was chaos after that. The Controllers began shooting, and the prisoners started panicking. Focused as I was on keeping the witch busy and avoiding laser fire, I couldn't tell what was going on with the others.

           Finally, Hunk called out to me. «The others are out, but I'm losing a lot of prisoners, and Matt ran off!»

           «What?!» I demanded.

           «Another prisoner got hit, and he took off to help her. I tried to go after him, but the tunnel collapsed!»

           Leaving the witch alone, I flew up to get a better vantage point. Among the carnage of bodies, I spotted Matt kneeling by an unconscious girl's side. They were surrounded by Hork-Bajir, and as I watched, one of them grabbed his arm and hauled him back into a cage.

           «They got him,» I told Hunk sadly. «He's alive, but recaptured.»

           «I… I don't think any of us can get back to him. Shiro, what do we do?»

           «You take whatever freed prisoners you still have, and you  _ get out _ .» I ordered. «I don't think there's anything I can do on my end, either. We’ll have to regroup and come up with another plan. I'll find a place to hide and get out as soon as I can.»

           «Shiro…» It was Keith this time.

           «I'll be fine, Keith. Just go.»

           I didn't hear anything from any of them after that.

 


	8. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art has been added to chapter 3!

           I wasn't surprised to find Keith waiting in my room when I eventually found my way home, much later that night. Well, almost morning, really. It looked like he was asleep in my bed, but with how fast he sat up when I tapped my beak against the window and called out to him in thought-speech, it was pretty clear that he’d already been wide awake.

           He opened the window, then stood aside as I hopped in and glided over to perch on the corner of my desk.

           “Shiro, thank God,” he whispered, relief evident in his voice. “I… We were all really worried about you.”

           It was still dark, but I could see the red around his eyes. Had he been crying? I couldn't really blame him. It had been a hell of a battle, and the things we'd seen down there could make even someone as strong as Keith weep.

           «I managed to find a place to hide,» I assured him. «Did everyone else make it out okay?»

           “Yeah,” Keith said. “We're all alive. I guess that has to count for something.”

           «Yeah.» I'd checked in at Matt and Pidge’s house before coming here, and saw Matt sneaking in and then going to bed as if nothing had happened. «Was… Was there  _ anyone _ we managed to free?»

           “Just one,” Keith said. “An older woman who stuck close to us. She ran off once we were out. Everyone else was either recaptured, or…”

_            Or killed _ . The unspoken words hung heavy in the air. After all of that effort, all of that loss, and we only managed to save one person.

           «The cop who tried to capture Lance is dead,» I told him. «I saw him fall in front of a Taxxon, and… well.» There was no need to elaborate further. We both knew what that meant. «Anyway. He won't be a threat anymore.»

           “We'll worry about all that in the morning. Or later in the day,” he assured me. “You must be exhausted. Go ahead and demorph, and we'll get some sleep.”

           «I… Keith…» I hesitated a moment, and I could see the realization dawn in Keith's eyes, followed immediately by denial.

           “Come on, Shiro. Demorph. I'll turn away while you get dressed if you still haven't figured out how to morph clothing.”

           «Keith, I was stuck hiding down there for a while. Too long. It… Took longer than two hours before I could get out.»

           He just stared at me. I couldn't fully decipher the look on his face, but if I had to hazard a guess, it was something close to grief.

           «I guess this is me from now on,» I said.

           Keith turned away from me to face out the window, but not before I saw the tears build up in his eyes. Eagles have pretty sharp vision, after all.

           «It's like you said: We're all alive,» I repeated. «And that has to count for something.»

           “The Andalites…” Keith’s voice shook as he spoke. “Alfor said they would come eventually, right? Maybe, once they do…”

           «Maybe. Yeah.» I let Keith hold on to that hope. I didn't tell him that I didn't think the Andalites could fix this. «Until then, though…»

           Until then, I'd have to live like this. Until then, this was our fight.

 


End file.
